Why Can't Some People Do Push-Ups?

Pushups are so ubiquitous that it's hard to believe some people find them impossible. However, many people struggle with this strength move. Reasons for the challenge include joint pain, strength deficiencies and insufficient training.

If you struggle with pushups, you have options to strengthen your chest — by being patient with strength development, honing your form or choosing alternative exercises.

Osteoarthritis, tendinitis or joint injuries to the wrist, elbow and shoulder make pushups painful for some people. In these cases, it's best to not work through the pain, unless your doctor advises otherwise.

Sometimes, these joint issues are the result of overuse, poor exercise technique or an accident. In these cases, rest and care for the joint, such as icing, will help you heal so you can do pushups again in the future.

If, however, you have a permanent condition — including osteoarthritis or a labrum tear in the shoulder —pushups may be out for the long term or forever. It's OK — strengthen your chest with moderate-weight dumbbell presses, chest flyes and the pec deck machine, provided they don't cause you pain.

Pushups are often recommended as part of an exercise routine for losing fat, but it's possible to be too overweight to perform one. In some cases of morbid obesity, your large body simply gets in the way. Holding up your body weight as you press up and down could also create just too much resistance for your joints to bear.

People who have an abundance of fat centered in their middle sometimes find pushups impossible until they slim down. Part of good pushup form is contracting your abs and keeping your back straight and flat. A great distribution of weight in your belly may cause your back to sag so that your pushup has such poor form, it offers no benefit.

Options to train the chest, shoulders and triceps muscles still exist for those who are too overweight to do a full pushup. Wall pushups and cable presses are a few options.

You must develop upper-body and core strength to do a full pushup. If you simply drop, especially without any previous strength-training experience, and try to crank out a set of 10 to 20 pushups, you'll likely fail.

Start with wall pushups, in which you lean into a wall to push up and back and move on to lower inclines — perhaps a kitchen counter, coffee table and then a single stair step. Eventually, you may work yourself toward to the floor.

Build strength in the muscles required for a pushup with supplemental exercises too. Dumbbell chest presses and flyes, front arm raises, triceps extensions and plank holds help you build upper-body and core strength to eventually do a full pushup.

Even if you find the full pushup eludes you, modified pushups — performed by using your knees for support —still offer benefit to your upper body and core.

Flared out elbows, domed hands and sagging hips make pushups harder than they need to be. Poor form also makes pushups ineffective, even possibly injurious. If a pushup seems impossible, consult a fitness professional to evaluate your form.

A proper pushup has your hands just slightly wider than your shoulders and elbows bent at a 45-degree angle with your trunk at the bottom of the move. Your core, or torso, should stay rigid as if you're pulling your belly button to your spine.

Read more: Proper Push-Up Technique

Women are more challenged in doing pushups compared to men for one simple reason: They are muscularly challenged. This isn't a knock on women; it's a fact of biology.

Women, on average, have just 50 percent of the upper-body strength of men because they have smaller muscle fibers and less of their musculature distributed in the upper body, according to research published in 2014 in the International Journal of Exercise Science.

That's not to say that women can't ever do a full pushup. However, it may take serious work and strength building to get there. Women who are willing to put in the work, have patience and modify can eventually do a pushup.

Read more: How to Do Push-Ups for Beginners